Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/45

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Morgan
39
Morgan

those who helped in the production of the book are mentioned Archbishop Whitgift, William Hughes [q. v.] (bishop of St. Asaph), Hugh Bellot [q. v.] (bishop of Bangor), Dean Goodman, Dr. David Powel (author of the 'Historie of Cambria'), Edmund Prys (author of the Welsh metrical version of the Psalms), and Dr. Richard Vaughan (afterwards successively bishop of Bangor, of Chester, and of London).

Shortly before the appearance of the translation Morgan seems to have resigned his position at Llanrhaiadr in favour of his son, Evan Morgan, who held the vicarage until 1612. He himself was provided for by means of the sinecure rectory of Pennant Melangell, Montgomeryshire, bestowed upon him on 10 July 1588. He still lived, it would seem, at Llanrhaiadr, which led Sir John Wynn, in a letter written in 1603, to refer to him as though he had been vicar of that place at the time of his being made bishop. In 1594 his income was further augmented by the sinecure rectory of Denbigh (cf. Letter from .Earl of Essex, 29 Jan. 1594-5, in Stype's Annals, edit. 1824, iv. 342).

Morgan was elected bishop of Llandaff on 30 June 1595, was consecrated on 20 July, and received the temporalities of the see on 7 Aug. Sir John Wynn of Gwydir at a later period took to himself the whole credit of this promotion, but there is no reason to doubt that Elizabeth and Whitgift felt a personal interest in the appointment, and made it for the good of Wales. The see was a poor one; hence it is not surprising that he retained the rectory of Llanfyllin, but he gave up that of Pennant, and in the next year that of Denbigh.

On the death of Bishop Hughes, Morgan was on 21 July 1601 elected to the somewhat wealthier see of St. Asaph. He now resigned Llanfyllin, but followed his predecessor in the see in retaining the archdeaconry in his own hands. Both at Llandaff and at St. Asaph he showed the energy to be expected of him. His successor in the former see, Francis Godwin [q. v.], speaks of his 'industria' there. At St. Asaph he took measures for establishing regular courses of sermons at the cathedral, repaired the chancel, and exercised a careful supervision over the property of the church in his diocese. His vigilance in the latter respect brought him into conflict with the great men of the district. Soon after his settlement at St. Asaph he had a dispute with David Holland of Teirdan, which was only composed by the intervention of Sir John Wynn of Gwydir; and in 1603, a few months before his death, he mortally offended Sir John himself by refusing to confirm a lease for three lives of the living of Llanrwst, by which Sir John hoped to profit. A correspondence on this matter is printed in Yorke's 'Royal Tribes of Wales' (edit. 1887, pp. 134-141), and shows the bishop firm and incorruptible, though possibly a little haughty, on the one hand, while Sir John is indignant at the ingratitude, under a feigned plea of conscience, of one for whom he holds he has done so much.

Morgan died, as 'Y Cwtta Cyfarwydd' tells us, 'upon Monday morning, being the xth day of September, 1604.' He was twice married, first to Ellen Salesbury, whom he married before going to Cambridge; and secondly to Catherine, daughter of George ap Richard ap John. He left one son, Evan, who became vicar of Llanrhaiadr Mochnant. The tercentenary of the translation of the Bible into Welsh in 1888 was marked by the erection of a memorial to Morgan and his helpers in the precincts of St. Asaph Cathedral.

[The fullest and most accurate biography of Morgan is that of Mr. Charles Ashton ('Bywyd ac Amserau yr Esgob Morgan,' Treherbert, 1891), which sifts almost all the material available for an account of his life. Two parts of 'The Life and Times of Bishop William Morgan,' by Mr. T. Evan Jacob (London, n.d.), have appeared; also a short biography by the Rev. W. Hughes, published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. All three appeared in connection with the tercentenary of the translation of the Bible into Welsh in 1588. See also letters in Yorke's Royal Tribes of Wales; Edwards's edition (1801) of Browne Willis's Survey of St. Asaph; Account of the Welsh Versions of the Bible, by Dr. Thomas Llewelyn, 1793.]

J. E. L.

MORGAN, WILLIAM (1623–1689), Jesuit, second son of Henry Morgan, by his first wife, Winefrid Gwynne, was born in Flint in 1623, and educated at Westminster School, where he was elected king's scholar, and passed on in 1640 to Trinity College, Cambridge, from which, after two years' residence, he was expelled by the Earl of Manchester for taking up arms in the royal cause (Welch, Alumni Westmon. ed. Phillimore, p. 115). He was taken prisoner at the battle of N aseby, and after six months' confinement in Winchester gaol, he was sent into banishment, and entered the Spanish service in Colonel Cobb's regiment. Having been converted to the catholic religion, he entered the English College at Rome in 1648. He was admitted into the Society of Jesus in 1651, and was professed of the four vows, 2 Feb. 1665-6. In 1661 he became a professor in the Jesuit college at Liege,